Abstract: A cutting apparatus for cutting a workpiece includes a chuck table having a holding surface for holding the workpiece thereon, a cutting unit having a spindle with a cutting blade mounted on a distal end thereof for cutting the workpiece held on the holding surface, an image capturing unit for capturing an image of an outer circumferential portion of the cutting blade mounted on the cutting unit, and a determining section for determining the orientation of the cutting blade. The outer circumferential portion of the cutting blade includes a plurality of protrusions each having a first surface for scraping swarf off from the workpiece when the cutting blade cuts the workpiece and a second surface connected to the first surface. The determining section determines the orientation of the cutting blade mounted on the cutting unit, according to an image captured of the protrusions by the image capturing unit.

Abstract: A cutting blade detecting mechanism is provided in a cutting apparatus including a chuck table for holding a workpiece and a cutting blade having an annular cutting edge for cutting the workpiece held on the chuck table while the workpiece is being cutting-fed in an X-axis direction. The cutting blade detecting mechanism has a blade detecting unit configured to detect the state of the cutting edge of the cutting blade. The blade detecting unit includes an image capturing unit configured to capture an image of the cutting edge in the X-axis direction, a light emitter disposed in a position opposite the image capturing unit and facing the cutting edge, and a decision unit configured to determine the state of the shape of a tip end of the cutting edge from the image of the cutting edge which has been captured by the image capturing unit.

Abstract: A package board division method including: a step of detecting an index size between each two adjacent scheduled division lines from position coordinates of each of scheduled division lines, a step of determining whether the index size falls within the range of package device specification, a step of correcting the position coordinates of each of scheduled division lines in such a manner that the index size falls within the specification range if the index size falls outside the specification range, and a step of machining the package board along the detected scheduled division line when the index size falls within the specification range and machining the package board along the corrected scheduled division line when the index size falls outside the specification range.